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Elton earns night one Midwest Mod win at the WISSOTA 100 and will start up front in the feature on Championship night

By Meghan Diemel, Editor
All The Dirt! Racing News

FERGUS FALLS, MN (September 11) - Cole Elton and Brennon Weight led the 24-car WISSOTA Midwest Modified Qualifying Feature to the green flag Wednesday, for the field’s first night of action at the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100.

The original attempt at green flag racing was called back, with Weight put back to row two for the second try. Elton held the pole once again for the second attempt, with Justin Froemming to his outside. Matt Schow and Weight held down the second row. Froemming was the early leader, with Elton second just ahead of a side-by-side battle for third between Schow and Weight. Schow pulled ahead into third, just behind Elton, as Froemming continued to lead out front.

With four laps scored, Froemming continued to hold top honors, as Elton came under heavy pressure from Schow for second, and Weight and Shane Howell completed the top five.

Elton pulled away from Schow and set off toward Froemming, making the pass for the lead three laps later. Froemming fought back, as the top duo battled closely for the lead, with Schow moving in to join in the fun. Elton continued to hold the advantage entering turn one with seven laps to go, as Froemming spun, made contact with Schow, and Weight narrowly missed both race cars along the low side of the track. The yellow fell for the incident and the field was regrouped.

Matt Schow and Brennon Weight (Cody Papke Photo)

Elton led the field back to green, with Weight and Schow right behind. Weight moved into second along the low side to complete the lap, with Schow third, Howell fourth and Travis Saurer in fifth. Reise Stenberg battled back into the top five about a lap later.

Out front, Elton drove on to the biggest win of his young career and first-ever in the Midwest Mods, ahead of Weight, Schow, Howell and Stenberg in the top five. Travis Saurer, Blake Adams and Nate Reinke were the remaining top eight qualifiers for Saturday night’s program.

Those drivers accepting the first eight spots of the inside row for Saturday’s Championship Feature included Cole Elton, Brennon Weight, Matt Schow, Shane Howell, Reise Stenberg, Tommy Nichols, Haley Dykhoff and Matt Heinzerling.

Earlier in the program, seven heat races set the Qualifying Feature field. In the first heat race, Taylor Bitzan led from start to finish to take the victory, ahead of James Trantina, who secured second from Jake Hagemann before the halfway point of the race. Haley Dykhoff completed her charge from ninth in third, right on the bumper of Trantina at the finish.

In heat two, winner Matt Schow had to work forward from fifth at the start, engaging in three and four-wide battles for top-five positions before taking the lead on lap three with a slider on Ryan Schow. From there he checked out to get the win ahead of eighth-starter Justin Froemming and sixth-starter Mike Nichols.

Tommy Nichols, Nate Reinke and Mike Nichols (Cody Papke Photo)

Tanner Bitzan was the polesitter in heat three, and after a first-lap dustup in the field, Bitzan set the pace out front. Joey Jensen, David Simpson and Darrin Lawler argued over positions second through fourth. A caution for a Jayme Peterson spin regrouped the field, and then the initial restart was called back, with Simpson getting the call for jumping the start.

Back under green, Jensen pressured Bitzan for the top spot, with Simpson third and Lawler fourth. Simpson began to pressure Jensen for second, using a slide job with four to go to gain the spot, only to have Jensen regain it a turn later. With two to go, Jensen suffered a mechanical failure and dropped out of competition as Bitzan took the win. Simpson and Heinzerling were the top three finishers.

Heat race four hit the track led to green by Nick Preston and Tommy Nichols. Nichols took the lead on lap two and drove off to a healthy advantage to score the victory, with Jaren Wibstad and Kaden Woodie in the top three. Woodie was DQ’d, so fifth-starter Tyler Bitzan was elevated to third.

Corey Storck was the early leader in heat race five, but a spin about mid pack regrouped the field under yellow. Once they were back under green, Blake Adams worked the high side and swung past Storck into the lead with three to go. With one to go, a spin brought out the caution. The field was reset with two laps on the board, and Adams blasted back out to the lead, with Cole Elton moving to second. Elton slid Adams in the final turn, with Adams fighting back along the low side to take the thrilling win. Storck was third.

Onyx Johnson was the early leader in the sixth heat race, with Nate Reinke moving from fourth to second at the completion of the first lap. Farther back, Reise Stenberg was charging to the front from his ninth starting spot, moving into the top three with just three laps scored. Johnson drove to the eventual victory, ahead of Reinke and Stenberg in the top three.

Arin Beyer took the lead early in the seventh heat race, with heavy pressure from Scott Oeltjen. Oeltjen drove into the top spot the following lap, with Shane Howell third. Weight took third about a lap later, and using the high side, he continued to march forward, getting by Beyer for second with three laps to go. With the white in the air, Weight grabbed the lead, hanging on for the remaining turns to get the win. Oeltjen was second, but was later DQ’d, elevating Howell to second and ninth-starter Travis Saurer to third.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 24-Cole Elton[1]; 2. 28W-Brennon Weight[2]; 3. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 4. L1-Shane Howell[5]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg[6]; 6. 42X-Travis Saurer[7]; 7. 40D-Blake Adams[9]; 8. 71-Nate Reinke[13]; 9. 28-Tommy Nichols[11]; 10. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[8]; 11. 11R-Landyn Randt[24]; 12. 22-Matt Heinzerling[10]; 13. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[15]; 14. 27-Corey Mehrwerth[18]; 15. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[16]; 16. 67-Mike Nichols[14]; 17. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[19]; 18. 73-Onyx Johnson[17]; 19. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[22]; 20. 36-Jaren Wibstad[12]; 21. 19X-James Trantina III[23]; 22. 70JR-David Simpson[20]; 23. 94-Michael Rogers[21]; 24. (DNF) 32F-Justin Froemming[3]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24TB-Taylor Bitzan[1]; 2. 19X-James Trantina III[2]; 3. 50H-Haley Dykhoff[9]; 4. 11R-Landyn Randt[6]; 5. 33-Jake Hagemann[4]; 6. 2HH-Oren Hoeper[3]; 7. #1-Tony Smith[5]; 8. 24X-Ryan Ost[10]; 9. 79K-Nick Kramer[7]; 10. 4C-Travis Shumate[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[5]; 2. 32F-Justin Froemming[8]; 3. 67-Mike Nichols[6]; 4. 28S-Ryan Schow[2]; 5. 39-Jamie Dietzler[3]; 6. 9M-Jake Molitor[7]; 7. 4-Phil Christlieb[1]; 8. 1S-Scott Bintz[4]; 9. 2291-Andy Davey[9]; 10. 97-Michelle Hutt[10]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 42B-Tanner Bitzan[1]; 2. 70JR-David Simpson[3]; 3. 22-Matt Heinzerling[8]; 4. 19S-Darrin Lawler[2]; 5. 94-Michael Rogers[10]; 6. (DNF) 30X-Joey Jensen[4]; 7. (DNF) 15-Jayme Peterson[5]; 8. (DNF) 19M-Gage Myers[6]; 9. (DNF) 19-Lucas Rodin[9]; 10. (DQ) 40-Colton Kramer[7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Tommy Nichols[2]; 2. 36-Jaren Wibstad[4]; 3. 10B-Tyler Bitzan[5]; 4. 28K-Nick Preston[1]; 5. T3-Travis Soper[3]; 6. 81K-Casey Knabe[6]; 7. 3T-Tucker Tschakert[9]; 8. 94R-Ryan Nash[10]; 9. 10X-Robert Bitz[7]; 10. (DQ) 980-Kaden Woodie[8]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 40D-Blake Adams[4]; 2. 24-Cole Elton[7]; 3. 57-Corey Storck[1]; 4. 27-Corey Mehrwerth[8]; 5. 66-Kyle Langland[3]; 6. 9W-Hunter Weeks[5]; 7. 13-Tate Kostreba[9]; 8. 69T-Nick Thoreson[10]; 9. (DNF) 3-John Johnson[6]; 10. (DNF) 20-Brayden Kunze[2]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 73-Onyx Johnson[1]; 2. 71-Nate Reinke[4]; 3. 87S-Reise Stenberg[9]; 4. 2B-Tayten Blascyk[8]; 5. 30-Cole Neset[2]; 6. 11S-Darren Engesser[3]; 7. 28T-Scott Tofte[6]; 8. 1M-Jon McCain[5]; 9. (DNF) 29A-Payton Asche[7]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 28W-Brennon Weight[5]; 2. L1-Shane Howell[7]; 3. 42X-Travis Saurer[9]; 4. 4B-Arin Beyer[1]; 5. 34J-Derek Rieck[8]; 6. 873-Taven Woodie[4]; 7. 12X-Jamie Norman[3]; 8. 29-Ty Miller[6]; 9. (DQ) 13O-Scott Oeltjen[2]